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Bluesfest set to rock Canada’s capital

Bob, Steve, Sarah, Kanye – the gang’s all here. This year’s Ottawa Bluesfest will be featuring some of the biggest and best names the international music scene has to offer. Get a preview of the upcoming Ottawa Bluesfest.

Bob, Steve, Sarah, Kanye – the gang’s all here. This year’s Ottawa Bluesfest will be featuring some of the biggest and best names the international music scene has to offer.

With headlining acts like hip-hop icon Kanye West, Juno award winner Sarah Harmer, classic rocker Steve Miller and the legendary Bob Dylan, this year’s festival is shaping up to have something for everyone – old, young or just thinking they’re still young.

Not only is the 2007 Bluesfest being called the biggest one in the festival’s 13-year history, it’s so big that the organizers had to change venues. In 2002, Bluesfest had moved to Festival Plaza (otherwise known as City Hall’s front lawn).

This year, it’s moving back to LeBreton Flats and the multiple stages will be set up in the shadow of the beautiful architecture of the Canadian War Museum and within a breeze’s reach of the Ottawa River.

The line-up for this year’s festivities is one of the most eclectic the Bluesfest has ever offered. Not only is it offering the chance to see rock legends like Dylan and Miller perform live on stage, but it is also featuring some of the best in Canadian musical talent.

Blue Rodeo, Hedley, City and Colour, Sam Roberts, Leahy, Metric and Alexisonfire are among the Canuck acts scheduled to entertain this year’s audience.

International artists will also be in abundance this year, tempting listeners with their performances of various genres of music. Some expected favorites include Manu Chao, Toumani Diabaté and Xavier Rudd.

Not only is the Ottawa Bluesfest renowned for its great taste in music, but also for its philanthropic streak. In 1999, the ‘Blues in the Schools’ program was launched in an effort to educate local students about blues music. Over the years, the program has had many enthusiastic sponsors, including AMEX Canada, ClearNet, Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc. and The Trillium Foundation.

The Bluesfest organizers embarked on another innovative endeavour for last year’s festival: making it a “green” concert series. With help from Molson Canada and Rothsay Biodiesel, the festival offered supervised bicycle parking to encourage concert goers to bike to the event. Also, all of the beer tents served their beverages in environmentally-friendly cups made from corn, and all of the generators were powered by bio-diesel.

Visit the festival’s official website at www.ottawabluesfest.ca for more information on the festival and this year’s performers.

Check back to PlugInMusic.com for further coverage, including artist interviews, reviews and live photos, of the Ottawa Bluesfest.